In the past, magnetic tape has been formatted using a single partition area, thus making the entire tape one long partition. At the beginning of the tape was a single system zone containing data regarding the format of the entire magnetic tape. This arrangement had several drawbacks.
First of all, data to be recorded on a magnetic tape must start at the beginning of a partition or it cannot later be retrieved. With only a single partition, data would always have to start at the beginning of a tape since this was the only area where data could commence being retrieved in an understandable manner. Since data could only be recorded starting at the recording medium beginning of a tape, only one related group of data could be stored on the tape at any one time. Unrelated data could not be stored on the same tape because the tape would not have a partition area at which to begin recording the unrelated data. This resulted many times in only the first portion of a tape being repeatedly used to store a single group of data. The remainder of the tape was wasted and never utilized.
Another disadvantage arose from the fact that tapes must always be loaded or unloaded at a system zone. Thus, when only a single partition and system zone are used, the tape must be completely rewound to the beginning to allow loading and unloading of the tape requiring additional time and effort on the part of the user of the tape.
Thus, a need has arisen for a method of tape volume partitioning that utilizes a substantially greater amount of the tape and allows for loading or unloading of a tape without complete rewinding.